Storytelling with minimal instrumental backing
Robert Storm | Finland | 03/31/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Five years after the masterpiece "Histoire de Melody Nelson", Serge Gainsbourg recorded another concept album. Like on "Melody Nelson", most songs on "L'homme à tête de chou" are spoken storytelling with instrumental accompaniment. On "Melody Nelson" the instrumental parts were played by an orchestra and a rock band but on this album it's a band alone. The music is even more minimalistic than on "Melody Nelson" though there are a few dramatic parts. At first I thought that this album isn't even real music, just storytelling with some instrumental backing. And I thought that it would be completely impossible to listen to for somebody who doesn't speak French. But after listening to it for a few times, I realized I had been wrong. The music may be extremely minimalistic but it's definitely good music. And there are a few songs with sung vocals, most notably "Marilou sous la neige" (Marilou Under the Snow). My French isn't perfect so there's a lot in the lyrics that I don't understad. But despite this, it's not hard to see that "L'homme à tête de chou" is a masterpiece.There are also a lot of bonus tracks on this cd release. "L'ami caouette" is a lot of fun. And so is "Sea, Sex and Sun", a disco song which is probably meant to be self-parody. The English version is even funnier in all its sleaziness. "Good-Bye Emmanuelle" is from an erotic movie with the same title, perhaps not Gainsbourg at his best. "Le Cadavre Exquis" and "My Lady Heroine" are a lot better. In the end of the cd there are two excellent songs are from an album that Gainsbourg wrote for Catherine Deneuve. "Ces petits ries" was actually written already 15 years earlier. A very different version of it can be found from the album Percussions."
